May 14, 2013

A Citrus Heights couple has been sentenced to prison in a case of credit card fraud and mail theft involving more than 300 victims in Sacramento County.

Matthew Ray Ausborn, 33, and Christina Leanne Barrios, 29, were charged with ID theft, credit card fraud and three counts of possession of stolen U.S. mail, according to a federal Department of Justice news release. Ausborn was sentenced to three years and one month in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, and Barrios was sentenced to two years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. A restitution hearing is scheduled for June 4 before U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez.

According to court documents, on July 2, 2011, Sacramento County sheriff's deputies found Ausborn and Barrios asleep inside an idling car on a residential street in Carmichael. The deputies arrested Barrios on an outstanding warrant, and Ausborn consented to a search of his vehicle. The search turned up a small amount of methamphetamine and approximately 400 pieces of stolen mail involving more than 250 Sacramento County victims. Also found were multiple identification documents for other people, checks, financial documents, handwritten notes containing personal identifying information, a laptop computer, printer and blank-check paper.

Ausborn and Barrios were arrested on state drug and theft charges. While the federal investigation was pending, the two obtained bail and fled.

Authorities said Ausborn and Barrios then committed additional acts of theft and fraud along the Interstate 5 corridor in California and Oregon, obtaining stolen U.S. mail, ID documents and access devices.

On July 19, 2011, the two were arrested by authorities in Lakeview, Ore., for vehicle theft and burglary. That same day, federal agents searched a storage unit that Ausborn rented in Sacramento and discovered more than 100 pieces of stolen mail, involving more than 70 additional Sacramento County victims. They also found identification and financial documents, handwritten notes with identifying information, computers and a scanner.

The case resulted from an investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service with the assistance of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department.

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